200 protest Bethlehem Area job cuts

Speakers direct their anger at Gov. Corbett, not the school district.

(Sitting L to R) ) Aiden Couto, a 7 year old first grader and Max Thompson,… (DENISE SANCHEZ, THE MORNING…)

April 02, 2011|By Steve Esack, OF THE MORNING CALL

They gathered Saturday in Bethlehem, 200 strong, to protest what they see as the budgetary darkness that is threatening their children's educational growth and the Lehigh Valley's middle-class livelihood.

The rally at Bethlehem City Hall was initially planned to protest the loss of 167 education jobs in the Bethlehem Area School District.

But there was no disdain directed toward Bethlehem administrators or school board members.

"I am not normally interested in politics, but I am a concerned mother who votes," Nancy Couto, a mother of two children who attend Calypso Elementary, told the crowd.

"My concern here is that the budget proposed by Gov. Corbett will lead to the dismantling of many programs, including many that are heavily relied upon by our parents," she said.

Corbett has proposed a spending plan for 2011-12 that seeks to close a $4 billion deficit without raising state taxes and fees and increasing funding for corrections and the state police.

To meet his fiscal targets, Corbett wants to chop public education funding by about $1.3 billion, slice higher education funding in half and cut library funding, moves that school districts, universities and libraries say are forcing them to make unprecedented job and program cuts.

Bethlehem would lose $6.7 million in state funds, leaving it with about 20 percent less to spend.

In eliminating 167 jobs, Bethlehem would end full-day kindergarten, reduce SPARK preschool, shutter most family centers, end tutoring, increase student-to-guidance counselor ratios, cancel elementary and middle school intramural sports and hold off on buying new buses.

The noon rally at Payrow Plaza was organized by the Bethlehem Coalition for Quality Education, a collection of parents, students and educational and community organizations.

Rallies such as the one held Saturday have been forming across the country to combat education cuts, or GOP-led bills aimed at limiting public employees' union rights.

Similar rallies will be held at 4:30 p.m. Monday at Seventh and Hamilton streets in Allentown, on Monday in Philadelphia and May 3 in Harrisburg. The state chapter of the NAACP is also sponsoring the Children's March to Save Public Education in Harrisburg on April 26.

"These are dark times," Alan Jennings, executive director of Community Action Committee of the Lehigh Valley, told the crowd.

Jennings was referring to the education jobs that are on the chopping block throughout the Valley, either through outright layoffs or attrition. They include: 247 approved Thursday in the Allentown School District; 215 threatened in Easton Area; 22 imperiled in Bangor Area and seven dangling in Nazareth Area.

State Rep. Steve Samuelson, D-Northampton, put the blame squarely on the governor.

"Gov. Corbett in his March 8 budget address launched an all-out assault on learning," Samuelson said.

Chants of "Recall Corbett" rang out in response.

State Rep. Joe Brennan said Corbett could do a better job of closing the deficit by taxing gas companies drilling in the Marcellus Shale regions. He said Corbett tours the state speaking about job creation, yet will be hurting the economy when teachers lose their jobs.

"How is that job creation?" Brennan asked.

As they sped around the plaza in sneakers handing out fliers, Brooke Coute and Kendra Mercado, both 10-year-old fifth-graders, stopped to reflect on their future schooling.

"I want to help my teachers not leave the school," Brooke said.

"I don't want them to go away," Kendra said.

Bethlehem teachers union President Jolene Vitalos said she was pleased by the turnout, saying it was a show of solidarity that is gaining strength to fight Corbett's proposed budget.

"No one is going to want to invest in communities when you have cuts in education, public services, library and no one is going to want to live in those communities," Vitalos said. "We are all in this together."